Case · C-002

“Foo fighters”: lights that followed Allied night fighters (1944–45)

Name: “Foo fighters”: lights that followed Allied night fighters (1944–45)
Start: 1944-11
End: 1945
Location: Skies of western Germany, Rhine front (missions of the USAAF 415th Night Fighter Squadron, based in France)

Skies of western Germany, Rhine front (missions of the USAAF 415th Night Fighter Squadron, based in France) · Germany · Nov 1944 – 1945

In flight Pilots

Unexplained

What happened: From autumn 1944, U.S. night fighter crews, in particular of the 415th Squadron, reported globes of light that followed the aircraft during missions over Germany; RAF crews had reported similar lights as early as 1942. The 415th's intelligence officer sent a report to the commands on 14 episodes between December 1944 and early January 1945, and on December 13, 1944 Allied headquarters (SHAEF) presented them to the press as a new German weapon. According to an internal CIA study, the OSS investigated without finding evidence of enemy weapons, and in 1945 thirteen German technicians and officers interrogated by U.S. air force intelligence in Europe said they knew of no such weapons.
Proposed explanation: No definitive official explanation. In March 1945 the British Air Ministry indicated anti-aircraft rockets as most likely and, for some cases, Me 262 jet fighters; the Robertson panel (1953) cited electrostatic phenomena similar to St. Elmo's fire, electromagnetic phenomena or reflections on ice crystals. Others have proposed ball lightning and optical illusions of night flying.
Official investigation: Intelligence of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron and USAAF commands; British Air Ministry; OSS; later the Robertson Panel convened by the CIA (1953)
Words of the document: OSS investigated but could find no concrete evidence of enemy weapons

Official documents

Gerald K. Haines, «CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90», Studies in Intelligence, 1997 (copia FAS) · CIA – Center for the Study of Intelligence · 1997

Sources

Wikipedia (en) – Foo fighter (other)
Graeme Rendall, “The Foo Fighters: Today's Pilots Encounters with UAP Are Nothing New,” The Debrief (analysis, pro-disclosure)

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